In a rematch of the 2006 race, incumbent Jefferson County Circuit Clerk Anne-Marie Adams will again face Birmingham lawyer Jerry Bahakel.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- In the race for Jefferson County circuit clerk, the names on
the ballot might seem familiar to voters. The incumbent, Democrat Anne-Marie
Adams, and the challenger, Republican Jerry Bahakel, faced each other for the
same position six years ago.

Adams is running for her third term as circuit clerk. She
could retire in January, she said, but she wants to continue the court system's
transition to a paperless system.

And, she says, she just loves the job.

"I try to be a wonderful person, but when it comes to
running this court, I'm no-nonsense," she said.

For Adams, campaigning is not that different than her duties
as circuit clerk. A large part of her job, she says, is educating the public
about what the clerk's office does and building confidence in the courts and in
elections.

"That's one of the reasons that I have worked so hard with
absentee elections - people didn't trust the process or they didn't think that
absentee ballots were counted unless it was a very close election," she said. "If
you put character and integrity into a situation like that, you get people to
trust you and trust your way of doing things."

One of those people is retiring Circuit Judge Scott Vowell,
the presiding judge of the district, who endorsed her.

"I got a tremendous compliment from Judge Vowell, who is
endorsing me," she said. "He recognized that I am a public servant, and that is
what this job is all about."

Adams has had a life built around the courts. Her late
husband was Alabama Supreme Court Justice Oscar Adams Jr.

She attended Xavier University and the University of Alabama
at Birmingham.

But it has been the crises of the last few years in
Jefferson County that qualify her again for election, she says.

Twice she has redirected funds from the circuit clerk's
restitution fund to help out the courts when cash was tight. When the county's
occupational tax was first struck down in 2009, she sacrificed funds from her
office to keep the probate court open. And when the county's funds dried up last
year, she directed money to fund courthouse security as a stopgap measure to
keep the courts in session.

Whenever she had redirected money, she says she has always
sought approval first from the state administrator of courts and the state
examiners of public accounts.

"I don't just step out and do something like that unless I'm
sure that it is something I'm allowed to do," she said. "In fact, I don't do
anything up here unless I ask myself first if this will pass muster with an
audit. I've had three audits and I've cleared all three of them."

However, her opponent, Bahakel, says he has concerns with
how the clerk's office has distributed the restitution funds it handles to
various departments and agencies.

"With the shortfall in the fundings these days, it is
imperative that they all receive as much as possible," he said. "So I want to
see to it that we implement the policies to ensure that these different
departments and agencies receive their portions of whatever is ordered to be
paid through the court and they are entitled to receive a portion of that by
law."

Bahakel cites his varied experience in law and in the courts
as his best qualification for circuit clerk. Bahakel has served as a police
officer in Birmingham, as a bailiff, deputy sheriff and law clerk in Jefferson
County, and as a law clerk at Bahakel and Bahakel.

He received an associate degree in criminal justice from
Jefferson State Community College, a bachelor's degree from Samford University
and a law degree from the Birmingham School of Law.

"The clerk's office deals with many different facets of the
court system," he said. "It's not just filing papers and that's the end of it."

The biggest problem facing the county and the clerk's office
is morale, according to Bahakel. With budget cuts, employees are working longer
hours and are overworked. He would like to use some of the circuit clerk's
discretionary funds to change that.

"It stresses the employees out and I want to try to relieve
those stresses as much as possible and make it as joyful coming to work as you
possibly can under circumstances that are difficult in the days that are
difficult when the funds and the staff are so short," he said.

This article was corrected at 4:48 p.m. to reflect that Bahakel works as a law clerk at Bahakel and Bahakel, not as a lawyer.